 Okay, I think we're ready to get started. I'm going to take a drink of water actually while we all settle in. So welcome. I am so excited that we're all here in person. We've been doing this virtually for the last couple of years, and it's not my favorite. It's wonderful to give these awards and to honor folks, but it's so great when we can do it in person. I think it just has a different feel. This is one of my favorite Burlington Partnership for Healthy Community events. This is our 13th annual Roots of Prevention celebration, and my name is Mariah Flynn. I use she, her pronouns, and I'm the director of the coalition, the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community. So I hope you all were able to get some food. There's still be plenty. We're going to leave it out because there's a few folks who are coming a little bit late, so feel free to get up and take care of yourself as you need to. So you got your picture taken with our Samantha Skunk characters. I'm going to have them come up for a quick second so they can take their costumes off in a moment. You guys want to come on up? So thank you so much to Caroline and Leigh-Anna. They are our amazing middle school students that are involved in our Be Above program. They're proudly wearing their costumes while the rest of us are just in our boring regular clothes. They are part of our Be Above group, like I said, at Edmunds Middle School. They learn about issues related to substance use and strategies that can help youth in our community make healthy choices. Over time, they're in their first year in Be Above right now, but over time they're going to start identifying issues they want to work on and learn skills to help them take action to support positive changes in their community. Right now they have been practicing a skit that uses animal characters to share important lessons about tobacco prevention with younger kids. They're going to be performing it for the first time for a third grade class in a few weeks. So I just want to give them a round of applause. Thank you so much for coming. This is Penny the Penguin and this is Samantha Skunk and Samantha is this beautiful magenta color when she's making healthy choices and sometimes she makes unhealthy choices and she turns green and then her friends help her out so that she can turn magenta again. Thank you guys so much. You can take those costumes off my notes. It's really hot. So housekeeping issues, please get up and take care of yourself as you need to. Like I said, bathrooms are kind of inconvenient in this location. They're actually downstairs on the first floor. The easiest way to get them is to go out these doors, go to the left and then there's an elevator and you actually take the elevator down to the first floor. There is a single stall bathroom here through this not an exit door off the side. If anyone needs that, we actually it's my bad or our bad. We didn't understand the layout of this building well and next year I think we'll make sure that there's a better option for bathrooms because they don't love that setup. But luckily we are here in person and I have been lucky to be the leader of the Burlington partnership for a healthy community for about 15 years now. And one of the things that always impresses me as we're putting together this event is just the passion and the commitment of so many people in our community in Burlington doing really important work to support health and wellness. I recognize some of the names of people who registered, but not all. So since some of you are probably new to our work and here just to support the awardees. I thought I would just share a little bit about what we do. So you can know us a little better. Our mission is to address the causes and consequences of substance misuse in Burlington. If you were here early enough to check out our slideshow you might have seen some pictures of our work. We highlighted the One Voice Youth Empowerment Program which is the program we use to support young people in middle and high school to learn skills that empowers them to be leaders around health improvement in the community. We also work on things like public education, raising awareness around substance use issues. For instance we have a program called Parent In for parents and caregivers of parents of tweens and teens. You can find it on social media or at parentinburlington.org. And we send out tips and resources to help prevent youth use and just help kids make healthy choices and help us as parents navigate all of that too. And we have Jessica Leahy who will be here speaking a little bit more about that tonight. But I think one of the most impactful things that we do or maybe important is challenging the adult behaviors and social norms that support substance misuse in our community. Particularly when they disproportionately impact populations that have already been negatively impacted by inequitable systems that are targeting different populations. Commercial industries need to get people using early and often to make a profit. And they often are targeting populations that are already disproportionately impacted by our health inequities. So it's really important that we keep working in our community to build more, we want more protective factors than risk factors for youth if we really want to reduce substance misuse issues. We try to bring attention to the way that all of us can be part of that, policymakers, community leaders, businesses, service providers, we can all build and support health through policy and practice. All of us are working on different pieces of that puzzle, but the real magic I think is how all those pieces work together. They create an environment that supports healthy choices. And the most effective way to prevent substance misuse is when the healthiest choice is the easiest choice and the most accessible to make for everybody. So Burlington is actually really, I think, blessed to have a lot of wonderful people and organizations that are working on different pieces of that puzzle. And Siddi Kiesela, Dr. Kimberly Blake and Peter Vandepp are three of those people. After a really rough couple of years, it was just really interesting to read their nominations and see examples of the human capacity to be generous and creative and engaged in supporting others. So thank you so much to this year's award winners. We're really grateful to you. There were a lot of wonderful nominations this year. I wish we had capacity to recognize you all, all of them, but I'll just say that these three, we just really appreciated the different ways in which you're connecting people, supporting the community, and know that you are in good company, that there's a lot of folks out there that are also doing great work. So thank you all. The last, like I said, the last few years, I think for some families like my own and others, there was especially challenging. And we learned a lot about what protective factors and community supports were in place that support people and provide a safety net when things get hard. But what we kind of also discovered was that there were members of our community that aren't always caught by that net when they fall. And so not all kids in residence had equal access to health and support, and they still don't. And we've got a lot of work to do around that. And we won't have done our job as our coalition until that work is done. But today, we really want to focus on, to acknowledge that, but really focus on what we do have, the resiliency of the community coming out of the last couple years of the pandemic, how we can use all of these strengths, like our three awardees and others doing great work like that, to keep learning and as positive, a positive impact on the community, to keep learning and when we know better to do better and help us, I think that will help us recover from the last few years and keep getting stronger. We've learned a lot and hopefully we can keep learning from what we've found out. We had invited a few speakers to talk a little bit in more depth about what some of that looks like and about sharing their experience about creating an environment and a community culture that helps people thrive, particularly young people. Representative Taylor Small was going to speak tonight because they've been so deeply immersed in helping young people thrive. Unfortunately, Representative Small is still in the midst of the legislative session and so there's a lot going on and we thought it might be a not work out and it hasn't worked out for this evening. So they won't be here tonight but I just want to kind of acknowledge them and the work that they've done. The stress, in particular, stress for individuals who do not feel included, valued or feel discriminated against can really impact their health and wellness and Taylor Small has been really wonderful in advocating for folks particularly around disparities around mental health and substance use outcomes for queer and transgender youth in Burlington and our larger community. So I want to make sure that we acknowledge that work and hopefully we'll be able to have them at a future celebration. But I am excited to introduce our first speaker for the evening, our keynote. We've invited Jessica Leahy here. Jessica is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure, how the best parents learn to let go so their children can succeed. And also her newer book, The Addiction Inoculation, Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence. I'll talk a little bit more about that because we are doing an event with her where she's going to get in more in depth. So if you like what you hear tonight, please come out again. And I'll talk about that at the end. I have been reading her most recent book and it's basically an outline of a lot of the strategies that we're doing in our community that BPHC is working on. So I'm really obsessed. If you are not as obsessed with reading about prevention data and research as I am, she has also been walking through her book in short video clips on Instagram when I'm an absolute fan girl. So I've been watching those and I think they're great and I'd highly recommend for anyone who wants to get a little taste. She makes the info really accessible. Over 20 years, I think some of that comes because she has such an experience with teaching. So she's taught every grade from 6 to 12 in both public and private schools. She spent five years teaching at the Oregon Alcohol Rehab for Adolescents in Vermont and she serves as a prevention and recovery coach at a medical detox and recovery center in Stowe. She has written about education and parenting and children and health for the Washington Post and the Atlantic and has had a bi-weekly column in the New York Times for three years called the Parent Teacher Conference, which was great. I read some of those articles as well. She also designed and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids Award-winning Animated Series that is my niece and nephew's favorite show, The Stinky and Dirty Show. And she has also co-hosts a podcast called Hashtag Am Writing from her home here in Vermont. So I'm very excited to have her. Thank you so much for coming, Jessica, and for sharing a little bit about what you know. No worries. During the pandemic, I had the wonderful delight to find out that my husband's name was on a bunch of posters that called him a COVID-paid liar. Dr. Tim Leahy paid liar during COVID, so that was fun. But my daughter went to CVU and felt incredibly supported. The pandemic was a very strange time for her to go to school. But it also, I'm so grateful we were here because my daughter is also trans. And so she, you know, was fairly restricted in her college search as things against, that are sort of coming up right now, anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ plus kids sentiments. And so she is very happy to stay in Vermont in order to be in a place where she could be supported. I feel so grateful that we live in a place where she can be supported. In fact, I get emails all the time from people. I got one yesterday from someone saying, hey, we're moving back home from Norway, but we can't move just anywhere because we have a trans kid. And so do you feel safe? Does your child feel safe and supported? And I was so proud to be able to say yes, absolutely Burlington is a dream place to live where that is concerned. But the past 36 hours have been really, the timing of this is incredible for me because I found out yesterday that one of my daughter's classmates at Bennington died by suicide. The press release just went out on that just as I was walking in the door. And, oh, thank you. And I also found out that some of you, if you have ever read work by a blogger, a mommy blogger named Deuce, Heather B. Armstrong, she died by suicide today. So I'm feeling like this is such an important moment to be talking about prevention, to be talking about supporting our kids who are especially, who are disproportionately either underserved, under-recognized, or not being recognized as humans. So anyway, my work in substance use prevention began with the fact that I myself am an alcoholic. I will have 10 years of recovery in about three weeks. Keeping my fingers crossed. Thank you. So as soon as I got my own sobriety sort of in a place where I felt like I had some sort of control over the world in my life and I felt like I wasn't going insane anymore, my first thought was, okay, well, if I'm the child of an alcoholic and my husband is the child of someone with substance use disorder, and by the way, one of my parents was the child of a someone with substance use disorder and they were the child of someone with substance use disorder and so on and so on and so on, how do I make this stop with me? Like, how on earth do I make myself be the end point for this long line of substance use disorder throughout my family? And I realized I knew so little about what that meant. Luckily, I'm a journalist and a big dork and so I love the research. I love that part of it. So I spent a year researching what eventually became the addiction inoculation a year just before I came in and write the proposal for the book because this is such a complicated field and so essentially that book became sort of what I needed as a parent and as an educator. Some of you may have heard, by the way, in the introduction that I worked for as for five years as a teacher to adolescents in an inpatient substance use disorder rehab for adolescents and some of you may have been like, what are you talking about? That doesn't exist. And you are absolutely correct because they closed their doors to adolescents. This was Vali Vista over on the other side of the state. So that does not exist anymore. But I did spend a lot of time looking at my students and saying how did you end up here and what could we as educators have done differently in order to make it so that you never had to land in this position? So this was a very personal topic for me and so I got to spend a couple of years essentially coming at the research just as objectively as possible. I looked at everything from the genetics to does it help if you have pets, you know, like all of the things that may or may not have an impact on your risk for substance use disorder. One of the things that has been really fun for me is finding ways to explain to people things that they may not want to hear about. It's really difficult to get people to listen to content around substance use disorder. It really scares people. And so in at its very essence, I think my job is, it's one of the coolest jobs in the world because I get to get curious about something and then do a lot of research and then translate it and teach it to other people but I also have to help people hear things that they may not necessarily want to hear. And so in the short time I have this evening I wanted to share with you something that has been really really difficult for people to hear and why it is the perfect example of why we need to be doing what so many of the people in this room are doing. As was mentioned, I do a daily 90 second video on Instagram and Tiktok and all the places about preventing substance use in kids and it's a little digestible chunk and you know I get comments back and of course it's the internet so they're always horrible people but there are more than that there are just really lovely people who say wow I didn't know that. Thank you for that information. I'm going to do you know better moving forward with that information and the biggest pushback I get is on the topic of sipping at home of people who just want to raise their children like those European children the children that can have sips so that when the alcohol is available around them they don't freak out and go nuts and just don't know how to moderate their thinking so if we can just raise our kids like those European children it's all going to be great and so I have to disapuse them I have to do a little myth busting for them and explain that you know well the problem is is that we can't teach moderation to people who can't learn moderation I am never going to be able to moderate my drinking that's not so much a thing for me and we know that parents that have consistent and clear messaging around no not until sometimes they say it's legal but that's kind of a like just because kind of reason so adolescents don't tend to go for those just because reasons very very well so I tend to go with the not until your brain is done developing we know that parents that have a consistent clear message of no not until your brain is done developing should you have any drugs or alcohol and parents who have a permissive stance on drugs and alcohol have kids that have much higher levels of substance use disorder during their lifetime or much higher incidence of substance use disorder during their lifetime and people get very very angry about the idea that I'm busting the European myth because they're like no no no that's a thing that is absolutely a thing and I say well here's the problem A you can't teach moderation in that way and B you know it's really important that the message is delay delay delay because the younger a child is when they first try addictive substances like drugs or alcohol that the higher their lifelong risk for substance use disorder is if you first try alcohol when you're in eighth grade for example you're creeping up near a 50% chance of developing substance use disorder over your lifetime whereas if we can get to 10th grade it goes down by about half and if we can get to 12th grade it goes down to somewhere around what it is in the general population that 10 to 11% and so if the message is delay delay delay and we're being permissive and therefore letting kids have drugs and alcohol in our home and letting them have sips then we're possibly not giving them consistent and clear messages around delaying until their brains are done developing and then I have to pull out the data on substance use in Europe and I have to explain to them that well according to the European Union excuse me according to the World Health Organization the European Union and the European Region as a whole has the highest rates of alcohol consumption in the entire world and the highest rates of illness and death attributable to alcohol consumption in the world and then people get even angrier and they say no but what about I have an exception what about Greece, what about Italy what about this, what about that and so actually when I first made these videos I ended up having to make six follow-up videos with very specific data from the World Health Organization and what's interesting about the follow-up videos to initial video doing the myth-busting around the sort of European sipping at home moderation myth is this there are exceptions to that myth to the whole, there are exceptions sorry to the rates of alcohol consumption in the European Union but what's fascinating about those exceptions is that they occur because the community standards are such that it is not a thing it's not approved of, it's not looked well at for you to be heavily intoxicated especially in public which drives home the point that we have the ability to create community standards in our own communities that are based on actual information real clear information and not our sort of magical thinking cross our fingers hope it goes well kind of kind of quote information and the countries in the European Union that do have lower levels of alcohol consumption as I mentioned it is due to the fact that their community standards are such that it is just not approved of so what's so cool about that is we can create our own communities in our families we can create our own communities in our schools and in our communities and in our villages I happen to live in a very small village before I moved here in New Hampshire where we all kind of came together and we decided we were going to watch out for each other and we were going to create our own uniform community standard about drinking among the kids in our little village and that became our own community standard and what's fascinating about community standards is that it actually drives consumption where alcohol and drugs are concerned perception drives reality we have this unfortunate glitch in our makeup as humans called pluralistic ignorance where we tend to over estimate where alcohol is concerned for example we tend to overestimate people's interest in having alcohol around having alcohol available at an event we also tend to overestimate other people's drinking how much other people drink and so if you were to give kids real true information about how many people are out there drinking and how much they actually drink as opposed to their faulty perception by the way these studies on this were done at Princeton University because they were having a real problem there they found out that at their alumni reunion so much alcohol was consumed that it was in terms of a gathering second only to the Indianapolis 500 Princeton reunions the Indianapolis 500 so Princeton University decided that they were going to tackle this in such an effective way and yes that sarcasm in my voice they were going to ban kegs that is going to solve the problem and so they had this incredible opportunity to do surveys of the way people felt about the banning of kegs and it turns out that when you ask Princeton students about how they felt about kegs being banned they said well I don't care so much but everyone else cares a lot and also when they surveyed them on how much they thought their roommate their friend their hall mates drank they tended to overestimate that and that's really important to know because if you overestimate how much other people are drinking it can affect how much everyone drinks as a consequence so for example and it turns out that there are some slight gender differences here too and as with all things having to do with gender differences this is a gross generalization but if you are male and you believe that everyone else drinks more than you and especially if you believe that someone you look up to drinks more than you you are going to be very likely to raise your level of drinking to what you believe the norm to be even if it's false even if you have overestimated it and if you are a female and you believe that other people drink more than you and if especially if you don't want to drink what you're more likely to do is to withdraw socially which is not a good thing either so we have the power to give kids good true real credible information in order to create realities that are not based on myths not based on magical thinking not based on false perceptions of social norms but based on actual data around how many people drink money of them end up by the way coming to the kids you know there's the whole you know for example if your eighth grader were to be approached by another eighth grader and they say here you want a beer and your eighth grader is like no that's okay and the other kid says oh it's no big deal everybody does it everybody drinks but your eighth grader knows well hold on that's not true only 24.7% of eighth graders admit that they've had more than a sip of alcohol by the end of eighth grade and they don't have to say it but if they have that information in the back of their head and they know by the way because they have been taught about how their brains work and how the adolescent brain is a very different brain from a fully developed adult brain that it is a big deal that drugs and alcohol do a lot more damage in the adolescent brain than they do in an adult brain than your kid that eighth grader can make much better decisions than a kid who's you know sort of operating on all of the misperceptions and magical thinking so by giving kids really good information that's solid incredible and up to date and by helping kids understand that they are not adults that their brains are not done developing that drugs and alcohol do a lot more damage in their brain and get into the some of the nitty gritty details of that by empowering kids by giving them helping them feel like they have a really good sense of self efficacy that if they make a decision that they can actually stick to it and affect change and make their life a better place and when we teach them to self advocate and to protect their bodily autonomy and protect themselves and their friends those kids are going to go on to have much lower life long levels of substance use disorder because those kids have had some of the best known preventions that we have heaped on top of them a feeling fostering that feeling of self efficacy real true information role models people that help set standards healthy community standards that's the kind of education that we need to be giving kids and you all are helping do that you're helping create community standards so that kids can grow up in a place where they're maybe not operating on misperceptions they're operating on real community standards that are that are actually about data and not about hopes and wishes and dreams and unicorns and butterflies and rainbows so I'm incredibly grateful to be here this evening and I apologize for being so scattered but my as I mentioned it's been a really really difficult 36 hours and luckily my daughter is actually coming home from Bennington so that she can be back in our fold this weekend so I'm like waiting for my little chicks to get back in the nest so that I can give her a big hug and tell her how much I love her and protect her and you know let her know that we love her for who she is and not who we wish she was and that we don't just love her based on her performance and that we will be there for her no matter what and that's all we can really hope for with our own kids so thank you very very much for the work that you do it is so important I'm so so grateful to be a part of this community not just for about for myself but for my children and for all the children that live here so thank you again thank you so much Jessica I know you have a lot going on I really appreciate you coming here and being with us tonight and for all of your words of wisdom around substance use prevention if you want to catch more of Jessica Lehi we have two upcoming events with her she'll be presenting at Hunt Middle School on Tuesday May 23rd at 7pm and at CVU High School on May 25th at 7pm so if you're afraid you might forget those dates everyone who's registered for this event will likely get a follow-up email with more information about that and we also have some posters in the back that you're welcome to take to so we're going to take a quick break in a minute so we can stretch and connect again before we continue with a story from Farine Paris Meyer and then some awards there is there should be now coming out some coffee and tea and an assortment of desserts on the table before you take a break though and leave your tables can you do one thing for me talk to the people at your table and find out who has the closest birthday either that just passed or that's coming up and we'll need that information later okay have a nice break 15 minutes I hope you had a chance to get some food and to chit chat a little bit maybe connect with some of the awardees I'm really excited to introduce our next speaker who's going to bring us into the next phase of tonight some of you may know as a resident and a mother in the Burlington community she creates heartfelt spaces for connection and learning through the art of storytelling she has done that and created stages at the Flynn and schools at the park wherever there's community she was recently nominated for an Emmy for homegoings an interview with Myra Flynn so I'm very excited to have her here today and to tell a story for all of us thank you and her name oh my gosh it's Farine Paris Meyer thank you so much Farine thank you so much Mariah a round of applause to all the labor of love thanks to this event to celebrate our community so just a shout out for that awesome well hello hello hello my name is Farine Paris Meyer I use she her pronouns and as Mariah shared my gift that I do in this community and beyond is storytelling and I think for me to be here today living breathing I find myself reflecting on this quote we have two lives and the second one begins when we realize we only have one and I remember I mean like I'm gonna let us breathe that in we have two lives and the second one begins when we realize we only have one so first and foremost as an artist as a storyteller I am here to invite us to slow down and to be in this given moment I am not saying that what is holding and waiting on our hearts goes out the window, goes out the door I think too often we make people pause the things that they're holding that's why I loved how Jessica naming for us I'm here but also my heart is here and I think that is deeply important so for me as a black woman as a mother as an educator as a queer soul those are some of the lived experiences that are influencing my narrative when we speak about this topic and for me just before I start storytelling is beautiful we have to remember that it is our oldest way of passing down our narrative this concept of oral storytelling at least right and when I think about all of us we are all here with ancestors as Maya Angelou says I stand here as one but there's 10,000 ancestors behind me and that is something I am constantly telling myself because wow this thing called life can be really incredibly hard to do because if it isn't the kids or the work or something else it's systems, it's racism, it's homophobia there are so many things flipping us backwards and forwards when we're trying so hard to simply do this beautiful life I am so grateful that I could be here today because I found this opportunity as an invitation to go back in time and reflect on how substances has played in my life and so I want to start with I'm Haitian I am a proud Haitian Afro-Caribbean my parents immigrated to this country I'm 41 so 42 years ago and growing up in Haitian culture I think about the house parties that my dad used to be a DJ personality in the Boston area for the Haitian community and so we used to have gatherings at the house and in our culture whether you are the 89 grandmother or you're the 3 year old child it is a multi-generational space and all of it exists loud and lots of beautiful chaos and vibrancy but growing up with the concept of abusive with substances I didn't see it in my particular home or space in the Haitian culture I feel like there's so much that they're trying to wrap their head around that this concept of all of these substances were a pause and I felt like I had a positive actually experience and an understanding of what it means to be around different substances I went to college I went to college and as a first generation daughter of immigrants I grew up in a very strict household because education was my passport to the future and I dare not do anything to interrupt this path that my parents had for me so I think that and with high level expectations one can put on a youth when I went off to college it was like freedom right and what I realized is because no one took the time to have those heart to heart open conversations it was just like don't talk about it but we can't do that because not talking about it does nothing when I'm in the position of something being presented to me we have to talk about these things we have to talk about white supremacy we have to talk about anti-blackness we have to talk about mental health we have to talk about the fact that our community is numbing so many feelings because we don't have compassion and vulnerability sometimes to give people space to just be and exist as they are so when I went off to college immersed in this community somehow this idea of the best four years is laced with a single story that you must have you have to drink or do said things in order to fully experience the fun and unfortunately even though growing up in a Haitian household where there was balance around all of these different things being immersed in an environment it was stronger than the will that I had as a 17 year old girl and I'm naming that because I, Farine Paris Meyer was one of those college students that ended up getting transported for alcohol and I haven't said that out loud since I was in college right it's actually something that you know something like my partner doesn't even know because I try so hard to like that's not me anymore but I think it's so important I can't stand up here and act like I run a business and I do all these things and I'm Emmy nominated without being honest about just the struggles and the skeletons that exist in all of us and so for me this idea of needing this liquid to give myself a peace of mind to exist what I really didn't realize was happening in that moment is that I was a black girl immersed in a predominantly white environment and even though I came from another school that was predominantly white but my city was like filled with brown and black folks being immersed in a situation where you don't see yourself represented you start to figure out how to like numb the thoughts or figure out how to just do the dance that everyone is telling you to do and I think it's something that we don't talk about because when I'm thinking about my kids that I'm raising I'm thinking about the work that I've been doing in the Burlington school district or even just talking with adults we are not pausing enough for us to unpack what is on our souls we are not unpacking enough that even though life can be hard and sometimes I make choices I might not agree with where is the compassion to let me know that that does not define me so that I don't keep going down this path of either shame or like I'm not good enough and I think for me at the age of 40 I started doing profound work around my younger self hey Farine what would you tell your 17 year old self what would you tell your 6 year old self and I find myself through this storytelling to go back in time and say guess what Farine you were able to manage going through the pandemic and not finding nights where you allowed alcohol or drugs to take over because you were so desperately scared about what was to come like I don't know about you everything got canceled friends school and I'm just like what is this life and the loneliness kicks in the isolation kicks in and I remember a lot of my friends in my different circles you know it's like oh what do we do today let's hang out and drink oh what do we do tomorrow you don't even notice it and all of a sudden you're like when did I become this person that was doing a little sip sip like that sip sip culture can be dangerous especially if you don't have at least the honesty to have a conversation with yourself forget what I need to tell my partner and my kids I Farine Paris Meyer if I'm not being honest with where my struggles or tribulations might be then I'm going to be the one that suffers the most and the thing that came to me during the pandemic where I saw such a spike in people really turning into substances I remembered a student that I met when I used to work in higher ed I did 15 years working in higher education and so for me even though as a college student I sometimes had my struggles what I got to do was pay it forward and become a higher ed professional and I was the person who could approach students with a very human touch there is no shame what happened today this weekend oh you were like caught in this particular incident I'm not here trying to judge you that does not define you but let's talk about the why behind it and then let's talk about is this the kind of legacy or energy that you're trying to have when you're at this institution because we're going to make good choices we're going to make bad choices but I'm hoping that we can at least align in more choices that help you not just survive this college thing but thrive and I remember this student David and I remember David because when his family moved him into college his parents were some of the most joyful people I had met I was that position at a college where you live in the residence halls with the students a lot and I remember David's family and then fast forward two years later I'm at this retreat and at this retreat I'm using the power of storytelling to get to know who my student leaders are beyond this role of being an orientation leader because I know that their siblings their brothers their partners their cousins and we created the space where students were allowed to share parts of their stories that they thought was important for our collective group to know so that we could witness them so that we can see them so that we could create space for them to matter until this day I met David back in 2006 until this day that student story has stayed with me because when we were taking a moment to share different parts of ourselves and you had students either you know coming out the closet students talking about medication with mental illness David shared a story that took our whole room by surprise and he invited us to stop putting his dad on a pedestal because what we didn't know is behind the scenes his dad was a hardcore alcoholic and though there was the joy that we saw and when he'd visit the campus and the packages and all of that back home was a different parent and I remember this 19 year old white man finally having space to just cry be real and not act like his family and house life was perfect it didn't matter if this student just shared this beautiful story of like I'm so that should not stop someone from being able to move forward with their truth I love that maybe your hardest moment has been this but it shouldn't stop me from saying what my hard moment is because I'm afraid of what that could look like but David Warner is someone who I want to say has helped be my north star when it comes to my kids because I remember the narratives that he shared and I remember him talking about the frozen bottles in the freezer and talking about like when I just need my dad yes he comes to the games he does this but man the nights that are really bad all I wanted was my dad and so I feel like with the pandemic I saw a lot of people start to spiral I continued to echo David's story in my head and that is what I do and I think this is a reminder especially for our youth you are so unbelievably powerful too often we as adults keep acting like you haven't lived already and that you don't have a powerful narrative to share but if you were to talk to me at 6, 8, 13 I could have shared a lot of things with you that I was picking up because we see and feel so much and so when we can empower our youth to speak and live out loud it's not just an impact in a development for them they have the opportunity to truly shift behaviors and patterns with us adults in this society because I really feel this younger generation is going to be the one that is going to save us from like the lack of compassion and so many things that exist that get in the way of us seeing each other's humanity so for David and for the youth that have the courageous to have conversations with people I love that my kids will ask me what number is that and I'm like it's my first that should be okay because you should be allowed to ensure that I'm living my life the way that I want to the same way I'm going to check in on you that you know three meals of just mac and cheese like that might not be the most like it goes back and forth there's no age or status in this you're human I'm human we're doing this thing called life it can be really difficult let's have open conversations of what's getting in the way let's have open conversations of what we seem to be leading into to deal with that and then assess is this in alignment with my ability to truly make the most of the second life we have when we realize it's this moment I could put my head down tonight and not wake up tomorrow I'm deeply proud that I can move through this community with honesty and creating spaces where we use the power of human stories to have a human moment we all have stories that are worthy of sharing and I feel this could be a beautiful medicine and us taking agency over what is what isn't what is the reality what isn't the reality because there is nothing like someone affirming or saying something you're like me too and not questioning the hardness that exists or not questioning the impact that people's behaviors it doesn't matter what your intention is impact is impact and so I think y'all for inviting me to be here I thank David for being so brave in that space because for me when I worked at a college all these students were helping me form my idea of how I would be a mom and so there are a bunch of things I have kitchen dance parties because a student told me that's how you get chores that's Molly right and there are so many different things that storm in my heart so that's the other piece when people gift you your story honor it by reflecting on it right like this program will conclude after we celebrate our honorees and I really hope that what was shared in this space haunts you but in a good way because we need to keep coming back and reflecting on these things so without further ado I will pass it back over to Moriah thank you thank you so much thank you for sharing your story with us and for being here tonight and for being a part of this community and creating community through story before the break we focused a lot on our work and issues related to our mission of preventing substance use but now I want to focus on all the people and the organizations doing work in Burlington that are supporting a thriving community and making our work easier so each year like I said we receive nominations for folks doing work in Burlington usually without a lot of recognition just because they're doing it just because it's needed and maybe that's where their passion is I think our real success in having a healthy Burlington that prevents substance misuse and just in general helps create a thriving communities is to enhance those things in the community that are our strengths and our positive influences there are people in the community like our awardees that are creating a layer of protection that helps create connection and reduces substance use issues so one reason that we hold this celebration every year is to have a chance to take a moment and acknowledge our community strengths there's been a lot to kind of alluded to some of the challenges of the last few years but there's a lot that we're also doing right and that are real successes in our community and we need to acknowledge them so that we can keep doing it and keep building on them so Siddiqui and Kimberly and Peter were all nominated by others in the community because people saw them as examples of Burlington strengths sometimes like Siddiqui they're meeting individually with young people helping to build connection and resiliency sometimes like Peter they're building new more accessible opportunities that over time will benefit future generations of children and families and then there's people like Dr. Blake who have used her personal experience and her professional experience and the power that comes with that to bring attention to important community issues thank you so much for all all three of you have done for our community here in Burlington and beyond so I just wanted to say so I hope you had a chance we tried to reduce our paper impact this year and have a virtual program I hope that they're, that still created accessibility for folks to be able to go to that link and read a little bit more about the awardees we also have in there our theme why we call this the Roots of Prevention award celebration because the every year our awardees are helping to plant little prevention seedlings in our community each of them is we think of like an individual tree that's supporting all the limbs and the leaves and the people and the organizations that they're connected to if we're all doing that there are more trees that are supporting healthy individuals and policies and practices in the community the gaps between all of us start to grow smaller and together we create a forest and that forest is stronger than any one individual tree and we can provide an environment in which people can thrive and flourish so I just want to say again thank you to those awardees that are helping us build those Roots for Prevention in Burlington I'm going to invite Flynn Elementary Principal Nikki Ellis to come up and speak about Siddiqui Sela for the Outstanding Individual Award Good evening everyone I am Nikki Ellis and I am the principal of Flynn Elementary School here in Burlington it's my first year in that role and I'm really excited to be here with you tonight to celebrate Siddiqui Sela and all of the work that he has brought to Flynn Elementary in my first year there he has guided much of my work and the principles that I apply to how I interact with kids and so I wanted to tell you a little bit about how we connected and what Siddiqui's work has looked like at Flynn Elementary School what my personal connection to that experience is and how Siddiqui has embodied the power, joy and love of Burlington youth which as Freen pointed out exists within every one of the youth that we interact with and lives with them at age 4, 5, 12, 18 and so when I came to Flynn this year and started to connect with students I was acutely aware that the students of Flynn are very diverse and have many different identities and experiences and there are some of those experiences that I can't begin to understand because I am white and have white privilege and so when I started to talk to the students in fifth grade and one boy turned to me and said it would be really nice to connect with someone who shares an experience with me as a black man and a black boy and I wish that I had that at Flynn I knew that my work was to figure out where that connection could come from and then to get out of the way because there was going to be power and joy and love in that mentorship so I went about reaching out to the high school to the assistant principals there and just said hey I'm looking to find a black man who is in the grades at BHS who may want to mentor a younger student and that's how I was connected to Siddiqui who also went to Flynn elementary school long ago whose siblings all went to Flynn elementary and who is really well known in the neighborhood around Flynn so Siddiqui showed up the first day and everyone remembered and recognized him it was a celebrity who walked in the doors and it was like time stopped because all of the students saw this person who they had not seen before in the school and suddenly there was a connection to some of their own lived experiences with race and the experience of not seeing teachers or adults who look like them in Burlington schools which is something that we need to continue to commit to changing and I felt deeply connected to that experience that Siddiqui brought to the school as well because as a transgender youth I did not see anyone who looked like me in the community either and much of my own mental health struggles with suicidal ideation and substance use would have been avoided if I had had that mentorship in my community and so we know that middle school is a time when youths begin to reconcile some of those experiences with marginalization such as racism ableism, transphobia, homophobia and so it's important to me as the principal of Flynn that we're making those connections proactively, restoratively and as early as possible and so Siddiqui's work at Flynn really embodies the five values that we co-constructed as a Flynn community which are joy, friendship, growth, curiosity and accountability and Siddiqui is the most consistent person I've ever met in my entire life I often think of his wisdom, patience calmness, kindness and empathy with students and I try to live that in my work too and I knew that I had fallen in love with Siddiqui when he chose to stay at school for a third through fifth grade play which if you have ever been to one of those you really can't understand a ton of what's being said but you're like nodding along and really trying to like follow and this high school boy stayed for the entire two hour play and I knew at that moment this was someone who cared very deeply about the student they were mentoring because that student had a fleeting one second part in that play and Siddiqui committed and stayed for that experience and so again I just want to say thank you Siddiqui for bringing that power, joy and love to Flynn Elementary you've helped to start clearing a path so that we can continue to do that work and your influence has been powerful to students but it has been powerful to the adults as well so please join me in thanking and congratulating Siddiqui Sela for all of his work in the Flynn school community oh goodness so now I would love to invite Grace Keller up to speak about Dr. Kimberly Blake who is receiving our youth and families award thank you Mariah I'm Grace Keller I'm here to present about Kimberly Blake demonstrate radical generosity when I first started in harm reduction one of my heroes said this in the speech and it stuck with me when I thought of what I would say about Kim tonight it is the first thing that came to mind demonstrate radical generosity Kim's prevention efforts are broad deep and sincere from the individual and direct service and treatment to babies in utero to other parents and loved ones to the community with rallies and awareness events with laws and holding drug companies accountable there was no low barrier treatment in Vermont before Kim Blake as a person working at the Howard Center safe recovery program the harm reduction and syringe exchange program for over 10 years I saw so many people who the treatment system did not apply to many had tried so many times some had been kicked out for behavioral issues some had been permanently banned some had never attempted because of mental health or other barriers that were insurmountable to them at safe recovery we saw these individuals languish and suffer oftentimes asking or begging for help we knew that while they may have had issues in other settings we had successfully and happily served them for years so we decided it was time to offer buprenorphine treatment in-house on demand this does not seem so radical now but at the time people were shocked I had doctors and physicians warn me that it would never work told me it would be dangerous and people even called my supervisor to complain what these doctors didn't do was apply for the job my biggest concern was who would be the provider we need somebody who would take the risk would support people through their process even if that meant drug use people believed in harm reduction we needed someone that people felt comfortable being honest with we really needed a unicorn six weeks in with no applications a little number one came in to my kiosk and there was an applicant who could this be I took a deep breath and clicked Kimberly Blake no way I can't explain the relief I felt she was as I'd heard of her for years as I feel like she's delivered half of Vermont's babies I also knew her to be a mother who just months earlier lost her beautiful son Sean to an overdose demonstrate radical generosity she was stepping forward when everybody else stepped back when no one would have blamed her for not stepping forward most importantly she was the right person she understood that treatment isn't an all or nothing thing that retention is in the relationships you build and that truly empowering people is recognizing any positive change when we look at things in an all or nothing abstinence or chaotic drug use lens we miss a menu of options that keep people safe that are primary prevention and that are big accomplishments for people Kim celebrated all of this with people she was one of the first people to treat women to treat pregnant women with buprenorphine in an office setting in Vermont she also recognized the importance of prioritizing treating and supporting fathers she recognized that the best prevention for children is keeping their parents alive and keeping families together she was also the first person to step up and organize a rally or an awareness event she's the first to testify in fact I watched a house committee panic and not have someone to testify on a certain side of things this session and called her and on the spot she jumped on to zoom and testified first to directly address the Sacklers and other drug companies and victim impact statements and she's literally the first person to comfort parents when they lose a child to overdose the hospital actually has her cell phone oh and when she's not doing all of this she's delivering babies Kim's multiple roles in prevention embody radical generosity, generosity of time generosity of expertise generosity of compassion generosity of love generosity of breaking down barriers and generosity of taking risks this is why there's no better person to be the youth and families award to get the youth and families award we have a great friend Kimberley Blake so our third award is our DG Weaver award the Burlington partnership is proud to have this award where we honor the late principal of Burlington high school DG Weaver vice principal I'm sorry we give this annual award to a person associated with the Burlington schools who like Mr. Weaver is a positive role model and who goes above and beyond to support healthy opportunities and activities for our youth and for our volunteer community member I never met DG but when we started organizing this celebration 13 years ago community members talked about his dedication to supporting the kids in the district and creating healthy opportunities and interestingly enough a lot of that conversation focused around sports and exercise and that being a really important thing for DG so I'm really excited about who's receiving this award today and I'm really grateful to his DG's family for allowing us to honor his memory in this way I'd love to invite Carl Crawford and Sadie Harris to come up and speak about Peter von Dep who is receiving the DG Weaver award Hello my name is Carl Crawford and I've known Peter von Dep for almost 18 years of my life I do not remember the first time where I played Frisbee with him but as soon as it started I've met some of my best friends through Frisbee, fostered the best relationships just playing on the Edmunds Middle School field, playing at Callahan Peter called me up and asked me if I wanted to play against the old men team that was going to go to Nationals Peter giving me rise to Winter League, Peter telling me that that guy used to play for the best Boston men's team, Peter just like whether he knew it or not just really giving me this love for this game that has just really continued far in my life like farther than I ever thought it could be when I first started playing Frisbee I ran across country and now I don't run across country anymore I just play Frisbee it's worked out way better for me than it currently I attend University of Vermont and we're competing for a national championship and of the members on that team I believe like five of them I used to play on Edmunds with Peter and same with the Ultimate Frisbee hoodie that team that I started with in 2017 has reached the state finals every single year since then with everyone who used to play with Peter on that field and just like people who just learned the game from someone who learned it from Peter same with the like it just means so much like the women's team that his daughter helped start won the championship last year and they're undefeated this year and they're going to do it again very recently I also ended with over COVID summer when nothing was going on Peter still wanted to find a way to throw Frisbees with some people so he emailed me and asked me if I wanted to like run a camp with him so that we could just like teach these middle schoolers and future members of the varsity team at BHS so I remember I went to Callahan we were just sanitizing discs over and over again and trying to figure out the best way where we could socially distance while still playing Frisbee I was reminded of that because I went to a BHS game and I recognized a ton of kids in playing on that field and I saw Peter in the stands a couple of years after any of his kids were on that team and it's just nice to know that he still just cares so much even though he doesn't have any it's just nice to know that he cares and he shows up and that's the thing I like about Peter he will always show up My name is Sadie Harris, I'm a senior at Burlington High School and I'm captain of the girls ultimate Frisbee team I'm honored to say a few words about Peter and his impact on me and the ultimate Frisbee community here since I started playing Ultimate has been such an influential part of my life and I have Peter to thank for that he first got me and many of my teammates involved in Ultimate I've never met someone more passionate and dedicated to growing the sport he has been a true advocate and thanks to him the Burlington Ultimate program is as strong as it is there are not many opportunities to start playing Ultimate for high school but Peter made sure that I and many of my peers had the opportunity to start early he was more than happy to spend his free time working with developing players in middle school but Peter's influence goes far beyond sports Ultimate is self-officiated which places responsibility on the players to develop and display sportsmanship and fairness players must have the confidence to make calls and communicate with the other team we must negotiate in good faith while clearly stating our case Peter's dedication has instilled these life-long skills and values into several generations of Ultimate players across Burlington last season our team won both the state championship and the Spirit Award which is voted on by other teams based on knowledge of the rules and sportsmanship the success of Burlington Ultimate in both of these aspects is a testament of the values Peter has worked into the program Ultimate has brought me so much starting a new sport was definitely out of my comfort zone but I'm so grateful that I did Ultimate has the best and most welcoming community of all the sports I've ever played and I met some of the most amazing people it has given me a chance to be a leader without him and his encouragement I wouldn't have had the chance to be a part of this community Peter's given so much to the sport and growing the community and I can't think of a more deserving recipient it's clear to see his passion for getting young players involved by relentlessly advocating for Ultimate Peter has helped so many players including myself find a welcoming community in a supportive environment I'm so excited that he's being honored for all his hard work and so grateful he got me involved thank you the feeling at the end of this event just hearing from all of the speakers and seeing the I don't know sometimes I think the word heroes is overused but it does leave me with a sense of just folks we have in our community that are such gifts to us I just have this sense of strength that we can address some of these issues that have come up today that we have the power and the support in this room to make that happen and I do want to share just a few things before we wrap up one is that hopefully you had a chance to take a look at our resource table but we're doing a lot of great work in the community we always love new volunteers new people to connect with us and think about how you can use your gifts and talents to do some of that work for substance use prevention whether it's as a board member or supporting events like this or or even financially donating there's lots of ways to use whatever gifts that you have we are very lucky to have someone who's gifted an organization that gives their financial resources the blue cross blue shield I just want to say a giant thank you to them for sponsoring this event we've been able to continue to offer it free of charge for anyone who wants to participate and we hope we can always continue to do that blue cross blue shield of Vermont is really one of the reasons that we're able to do that every year so I really thank them for their time and for our board chair Megan Peek who works in community relations and health promotion at blue cross blue shield of Vermont she's here today she is always a help in putting on this event but also in supporting that connection to get that financial donation so thank you Megan and thank you to blue cross blue shield and a few other thank yous thank you to cctv who are in the back taping today they're another amazing community resource we will make sure to send out the link there I believe live streaming which I didn't realize was going to happen and also there will be a recording for later that if anyone had family that missed it who wanted to honor their awardees we'll have that link for you to share with everyone and thank you to all of our board members who all are here today helping out we had a little bit of some things shift this week and needed some extra help and they all showed up Megan and Mitch and Mariel we have all the M's on our board as well as Karen and Tien who helped with planning and setting up for tonight and also Angela and Delaney Halstead who jumped in as the last second to help us volunteer and make everything come together so thank you all for all of your help we have two amazing staff Bianca and Evan who are just like rock stars in making all this come together Bianca was the one who put together a lot of the details for this event had something come up and couldn't be here tonight and Evan just stepped in and tried to help me pull it all together really I'm very lucky to have both of those folks on our team and make this a special celebration we hope so we love reading about the nominations for the Roots of Prevention awards honestly there are a lot of unsung heroes in the community I think we probably all know that I am often the one I didn't get to be the one to call people this year and tell them that they were nominated or chosen for an award but I cannot tell you the number of times I used to be the one that always called folks I heard from folks oh I didn't think anyone noticed that I was doing that so I just want to say thank first to our awardees people noticed you we see you we know that there are a lot of things that you're doing that folks saw in this room tonight and probably things that we don't see that you're doing and we thank you for all of it and second for everyone else don't forget to tell the people that you notice and appreciate what they're doing sometimes I get really awkward about doing that but we all have to do it anyways I have to get over it we all have to get over it people need to know that we see them recognize their efforts probably even more these days than we ever did before and if you see someone that's making a contribution to the health safety and wellness of the Burlington community consider nominating them for a Roots of Prevention award so we can come back again next year so back to that at the tables I asked you to identify who had the closest birthday that person gets to take the table center piece so take it with you plant it it is in a little planter if you would like and build your plant your own roots for prevention and if there's two close birthdays we have a few extras up here so I hope you learned a few new things today maybe you made a new connection tonight community organizer Margaret Wheatley said that creative solutions come from new connections so hopefully there's some new creative solutions in our community I wish for all of you the energy and resources to continue making connections having conversations that lead to more positive changes for our community substance use as we've heard probably heard here tonight is impacting everyone in our community in some way how we change the way we think about that we need to change the way we think about that so that it can become one of those issues like COVID where we wrapped our energy and our resources around preventing long-term consequences for our community and our community and our community's use prevention is not the crisis it's a steady long-term investment in policies, practices, education and supporting our community assets that prevents the constant need for a crisis response so please keep planting those roots for prevention now to help our children and our community thrive in the coming future thank you for coming I want to acknowledge Mariah for everything she does to lead this organization and make this happen so thank you thank you